Case that led to countrywide protests finally comes to a head as culprits convicted

Four men have been found guilty of the rape of a woman on a bus in the Indian capital and her murder.

Bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Singh, gym instructor Vinay Sharma, fruit-seller Pawan Gupta, and unemployed Mukesh Singh were found guilty of luring the woman and a male friend onto the bus on the night of December 16, 2012 as the pair returned home from watching a movie at a shopping mall in south Delhi.

As the bus drove through the streets of the capital, the men repeatedly raped and tortured the 23-year-old with a metal bar before dumping her and her friend, naked and semi-conscious, on the road.

She died in a Singapore hospital two weeks later of internal injuries.

Arguments on sentencing are due to begin on Wednesday and all four could be hanged for the murder conviction, said V. K. Anand, the defence lawyer for one of the accused.

They had all pleaded not guilty.

"All four accused committed on all sections," said Anand.

Indian law prohibits naming the woman victim, a trainee physiotherapist from a lower-middle class family who had worked in a call centre, but Indian media have dubbed her Nirbhaya, a Hindi word meaning fearless.

The verdict capped a seven-month trial, often held behind closed doors, that was punctuated dramatically by a fifth defendant hanging himself in his jail cell.

The crime triggered protests and soul-searching about the treatment of women in India last December and throughout the year.

Outside the court, the case cemented India's reputation as unsafe for women, even after parliament passed new laws against sexual crimes.

Nirbhaya's case resonated with thousands of urban Indians who took to the streets in fury after the attack.

Dozens of protesters gathered outside the courtroom today, calling the case a wake-up call for India and demanding the death penalty for the men.

"Every girl at any age experiences this - harassment or rape. We don't feel safe," said law school graduate Rapia Pathania.

"That's why we're here. We want this case to be an example for every other case that has been filed and will be filed."

Facing public protests and political pressure, the government reformed some of its antiquated laws on sexual violence, creating fast-track courts to avoid the painfully long rape trials that can easily last over a decade.

The trial of the four men, which took about seven months, was astonishingly fast by Indian standards.